Rome wasn’t built in a day, wise people say. Great things take some time to shine. Rise of Kingdoms’ success story is a great example of this.
When this mid-core game was released back in 2018, the numbers were good. In the years after that, they were even better.
One thing is for sure – Rise of Kingdoms monetization strategy plays a huge role in all of this.
We’re here to cover everything there is to know about the game’s monetization and user acquisition practices. Plus everything else that affects the game’s money-making process.
Let’s begin.
How Successful Is Rise of Kingdoms?
This game was released in September 2018 by Lilith Games. I’m sure you’re familiar with some of their other successful titles such as AFK Arena, Art of Conquest, Soul Hunters, etc.
Rise of Kingdoms is a real-time strategy game. It also falls into the 4x and build&battle strategy subgenres – a pretty competitive and crowded territory.
Nevertheless, this game made it to the top of the genre. Here’s what Rise of Kingdoms has accomplished in five years of its existence.
Data source: AppMagic. Get 3 days of free access to all AppMagic’s features, as well as 10% off, by clicking this link.
Rise of Kingdoms has been downloaded over 100 million times overall, which is a huge achievement. Interestingly, the game reached peak downloads in January 2022 (almost 6 million downloads), long after its release.
Rise of Kingoms’ revenue was the highest in 2020 and 2021. However, this strategy game is still making a lot of money – more than $20 million per month! If we look at all-time revenue, Rise of Kingdoms earned more than $2 billion, which is exceptional!
At the moment of writing, this game is ranked #5 on the top-grossing chart of strategy games. It surpassed some great games like Clash of Clans, Lords Mobile, and Top War.
One of the game’s success factors is its advertising strategy which helps attract new players every day. Once they start playing, all other game elements work together towards a common goal – generating revenue.
Here’s what it all looks like from a player’s point of view.
First Impressions
When you launch the game, you get to pick your favorite civilization.
Rome, China, Britain, Japan…There are 8 of them to pick from. I decided on Rome and got a powerful commander character.
After that, a skippable intro video begins. It tells you an inspiring story of how it all began and what you should do with your civilization. This really immerses you into the game.
Game Tutorial
A beautiful Roman woman appears. She is here to guide you through the game.
She tells you about the gameplay, features, and brings interesting backstories. You will learn how to train your troops, upgrade your buildings, scout for barbarians, etc.
The tutorial process is step by step, pretty long, and filled with a lot of information. If you ever played similar games, all of it feels quite familiar, so you can afford to speed up some parts.
Art Style
Rise of Kingdoms features a recognizable strategy game art style.
It comes in landscape orientation and stylized graphics. The game’s characters are cartoonish with accentuated features. For example, your generals come with an unrealistically huge upper body. This signalizes how strong and battle-ready they are.
This kind of graphic style helps players immerse themselves into the fantasy world. Another thing that helps with this is the player’s top perspective view. You can see and control everything from your heights. Or as some say, you get to play god.
Another interesting art feature is that the game follows a night and day cycle. This way, you always know what time it is in your civilization.
UI/UX
The game is set on a huge map for you to explore. Just zoom in and out to explore different cities and areas.
You’ll be spending most of your time in your own city, making it a great one. Here, you will get to know about the game’s main features:
- Resources (top right)
- Shop and events (top right)
- Quests (top left)
- World map (bottom left)
When there’s something new for you to check out, red notifications will appear next to the features. While playing this game, you will find it is filled with things to check and do.
Rise of Kingdoms: Main Game Mechanics
Rise of Kingdoms comes with the usual mechanics for this type of strategy game.
Here is a breakdown of the main elements the game consists of:
- eXploring, eXpanding, eXploiting, eXterminating (4x)
- base building, collecting resources, troop training
- fighting against AI and other players
All of these work together to achieve your ultimate goal – progress. There are a few main mechanics that make all of this possible, so let me guide you through them.
World-Building
City building, base building, civilization development, call it whatever you want.
You will be able to build two types of buildings, economic and military. The first ones are here to keep the city alive (farms, storage, lumber mills). Military buildings are made for your troops (barracks, archery range, hospital…)
Once you build them, you will constantly upgrade your buildings. Upgrades come with wait timers that range from seconds to hours. These timers are one of the game’s main monetization points.
There is one building that symbolizes your overall progress – the City Hall. What I mean is, when your City Hall is at level 2, you are a level 2 player. When it reaches level 7, so do you.
Resource Management
Without resources, there is no progression. The game’s main three resources are gems, food, wood, and stone. You will receive plenty of food, wood, and stone as rewards for completing quests.
Gems are the game’s premium currency, so the game is a bit less generous with them.
Troop resources are equally important. The most valuable people you have in your troops are your commanders. Their main role is to lead your troops to victories. All of them come with unique skill sets which should be upgraded.
Real-Time Combat
If there is one thing that makes Rise of Kingdoms stand out from the rest of the genre, this is it. First of all, troop movements are unrestricted. You can redirect or intercept your troops in the middle of the route.
Second, the battles are not instantly finished. Instead, they are resolved in alternating turns that last for one second. Besides this, you can recall your army at any time. All of this brings a whole new layer of action and dynamic to the game.
Besides other players, you will also battle barbarians wandering around the map.
Rise of Kingdoms Monetization Strategy Dissection
Strategy players are an interesting group of mobile gamers. They typically play competitively, frequently, and have long sessions.
The result? Strategy games have higher LTV and revenue per install in comparison to other genres.
In fact, strategy games are among three genres where players are most likely to complete in-app purchases (Facebook Gaming). However, to successfully monetize them, you have to have the right approach.
Does Rise of Kingdoms monetization strategy pass the test? It’s time to analyze.
Which Monetization Models Rise Of Kingdoms Uses?
In-app purchases are Rise Of Kingdoms’ bread and butter.
Additionally, this game’s monetization mix includes a few subscription features as well.
How about we cover them all?
Rise of Kingdoms In-App Purchases Strategy and Setup
Speaking of monetization, the only logical place to start is the game’s store.
Particularly in the case of Rise of Kingdoms, where the in-game store is really rich. It comes with A LOT of sections and offers.
Here they are.
First Recharge Gift Package
The first thing you’ll see in the game’s store here is that they try to turn new players into payers.
For this reason, the initial offer comes at a low price, $0.99. At this price, it gives you a new commander, VIP privileges, gems, and plenty of other items. It even features an intro video that lets you get to know the commander better.
Super-Value Bundle
In this section, the prices go a little higher, but the offer value is equally attractive. These offers get updated depending on player progress and current events.
In the initial setting, there are 8 different offers, all at the same price – $4.99. One of them is a one-time opportunity, while the others come with timers.
Daily Special Offer
You will probably visit this section every single day, even as a free-to-play player. This is where you come to claim your free daily chest.
Just underneath, there are three tempting offers. How tempting? Well, these three offers are the game’s best sellers.
The offers come at low prices, $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99. They bring speed-ups, VIP points, loot box keys, gems, etc. A perfect combo of big quantity and small pricing.
Gem Store
This section is what you would typically expect from an in-game store. Six different sized packs of gems, at six different prices. The prices start at $0.99 and go all the way up to $99.99.
These offers don’t offer as much value for money as the previous ones. However, the first purchase definitely pays off. Only that one time, you will get everything double!
Supply Depot
Here, you can find six different subscription plans with six different resources, from gems to gold.
The gem subscription is the top-seller among these plans. After all, you will be running out of gems all the time. This subscription plan stretches over a month’s time and comes at $9.99. It gives you 2,200 gems instantly and 650 per day if you log in each day. This is a total of 19,500 gems!
For comparison’s sake, if you spent $49.99 in the gem store, you would only get 12,000 gems. This is 30 dollars less and 8,500 gems more. Yes, the subscription value is that good.
Growth Fund
Sorry, VIP only. Really, you have to reach at least VIP level 5 to be able to purchase it. It costs $14.99 and you can only purchase it once. Once you buy the Growth Fund, it is permanent and all yours.
Here’s the deal.
The Growth Fund follows progress. Every time your City Hall reaches certain levels, you will get a gem bonus. As you level up, the bonuses get bigger and bigger.
How In-App Purchases Really Work in Rise of Kingdoms
The key to successful game monetization goes beyond the game store.
One of the main things is – how does it blend with the player’s journey?
I played Rise of Kingdoms for 7 days to figure this out.
Over a week’s time, my City Hall reached level 7. This means I only got to experience a small section of Rise of Kingdoms monetization.
Here’s what I found out.
Day 1
On my first day of playing, I didn’t notice a lot of monetization dynamics.
The only monetization feature that caught my attention was a red (1) notification next to the store icon. It was notifying me that I can claim a free daily chest inside the store, so I did.
Day 2
On the second day, there were two notifications next to the store icon.
One was another daily chest, and the second one was, well, fake. As I found out later, these fake notifications appear every day. Sneaky, Lilith Games!
Day 3
On day 3, I discovered the game’s VIP section.
Basically, if you want to level up your VIP status, you have to log in daily and claim a chest. When you do that, it will bring you VIP points.
There are two more chests in this section. They are called VIP exclusive chests and bring different rewards. One is free and claimable daily, while the other brings “special privileges” and costs $0.99.
Day 4
Once I reached City Hall level 5, I could build a Shop.
The shop offers resources, speedups, boosts, and other items. Here, you pay with gems – the almighty currency.
The shop also comes with a VIP shop. Naturally, the VIP shop is less expensive than the regular one. However, it’s restricted. The higher your VIP level is, the more offers you get to choose from. At my VIP level 2, I only saw a few offers.
Day 5
If you like chests, you will love this game.
I found even more of them in my tavern: Silver and Golden chest. You can open them for free (limited) or by using keys.
These chests are the game’s loot boxes and bring 4 random rewards. I got hooked to the excitement so I hit the limit in a few minutes. If you want to open more chests – buy keys with gems. But first, buy some gems.
Next, I reached level 6, and a Mysterious Merchant visited my city. From time to time, this merchant visits your town’s Courier Station.
On each visit, she offers a bunch of items at a big fat discount. The discounts in the Mysterious Merchant’s shop go from 30% to 90%! Depending on the item, you can pay with food, wood, or gems.
Day 6
When I reached level 7, the game’s store got an update. Congratulations on getting a 30-Day Gem Supply (50%) off!
The message came as a pop-up, and this discounted offer appeared in the store right away. Obviously, this level up brought me a title of an engaged player that is likely to make the discounted purchase. Hence the 50% off.
Day 7
On my last day of playing, a notification led me to the store. Only this time, it wasn’t fake.
A new offer appeared in the store’s Super Value bundle section. It is called the Lantern Festival Reunion and lasts for a week. The price? Only $0.99. This price is really appealing, as it is significantly cheaper than all other bundles in the store.
Day x: Battle Pass
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to unlock this feature during my 7-day player journey. Your City Hall has to reach level 10 for this, while I only reached level 7.
The battle pass comes in the form of Lucerne Scrolls placed in the Trading Post building. Here, you can play different missions across 80 levels. The missions are divided into weekly and seasonal challenges.
There is one free and two optional paid packages. One comes at $4.99 and the other at $19.99. It works on the same principle as most battle passes – the more expensive a package is, the more exclusive the rewards are.
User Retention in Rise of Kingdoms
Every game publisher knows it, player retention is an ongoing challenge. This is the bridge between acquiring and monetizing players.
Strategy games typically come with good retention rates. Is Rise of Kingdoms one of those games? Here are the numbers.
- After day 1, the game keeps about 41% of players
- After 7 days, 20% keep playing
- 30 days later, 9% of players are retained
These numbers bring the game close to the very top of its genre. The top 2% of strategy games keep an average of 52% players after the first day, 25% after seven, and 17% after 28 days (Benchmarks+ platform).
Here are some methods this strategy game uses to retain its players.
Push Notifications
Hey, come back to the game! Push notifications are here to tell you this, just in a less pushy way.
Rise of Kingdoms sends out quite a lot of reminders. Particularly if you actively play the game.
In most cases, notifications appear when you leave the timers to do their thing. Then you get notifications like “Governor, Horseman training is complete” or “Governor, the upgrade of the Wall is complete”.
If you haven’t played for a while, you might get something like “Governor, our people require your leadership”.
Sometimes, instead of “Governor”, you can see your name in the notifications. This is good because it adds a personal touch.
It is also good that it’s not included in every single notification, as this might feel too pushy.
Events
Live events are always a great way to bring new content and excitement to the game. This is a proven way of always giving players something new to strive towards.
Rise of Kingdoms’ event section is filled with different events – and you can see them all on a calendar. Next, there is an overview of new server events, regular ones, and upcoming ones.
Alliance/Social Features
If you play this game, you should get social. The game always encourages you to join an alliance. The motivation? Allies always help and support each other. You even get 300 gems as a reward for joining one.
There are other social features as well. The first is a live chat on your home screen. Second, a ROK icon appears in your city from time to time. This leads you to the game’s community platform – something like a ROK Reddit.
I’ve previously mentioned some monetization features such as the VIP System, loot boxes, and daily chests. All of these also work great for the game’s retention rates.
Dissecting Rise of Kingdoms Ads
But what about the game’s user acquisition strategy? Here’s how Rise of Kingdoms gets so many new users.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #1
In order to instantly capture the viewer’s attention, the first few seconds of a video ad need to be catchy and out of the ordinary.
This Unity ad for RoK accomplishes just that. We see the popular Rise of Kingdoms mascot having his mugshot taken.
Ok, I’m interested. It’s a great video hook.
The character tells us his story – he starts as a criminal. After he’s been left stranded on a desert island, he begins collecting resources, expanding the island, and building a city. In other words, he ends up extremely successful despite his initial hardship.
It’s a dramatic story about overcoming adversity.
There’s a couple of things I want to unpack here.
Notice that the ad tells a dramatized emotional story about this character. Moreover, he has a distinct personality. When I watch the ad, I feel connected to him and I want to see him win. That’s exactly the point of this ad – to get people invested in the story. It targets gamers who love narratives in games.
Furthermore, this ad is all about starting over and using your creativity to accomplish something outstanding. Thus, it speaks to gamers whose main motivations are creativity, resilience, being the odds, and building something from scratch.
Another thing I want to emphasize is that this ad, just like most other RoK ads, is all about cinematics and not gameplay scenes. I rarely saw any actual gameplay footage in RoK ads.
This is tricky.
Yes, cinematic scenes look infinitely cooler than gameplay ads. That can result in more users. However, by using cinematics, you’re misrepresenting the game. That can result in players being disappointed once they download the game.
In other words, it’s risky not to include gameplay footage.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #2
The Rise of Kingdoms ad demonstrates some of the game features and shows how to play the game. However, note that this is not what the game looks like in reality.
In the ad, we see how to even out the terrain, build harbors, gain resources from trading, and upgrade houses.
It’s a simple loop that shows players how to advance in the game. If the goal is to grow your city and build better housing. This is one of the possible ways players can accomplish just that.
Creating ads based on game features is always a smart choice because it shows viewers what’s possible in the game.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #3
Remember the prisoner guy from the first ad? Here he is again. You’ll notice he’s in many Rise of Kingdom ads as the mascot.
However, in each ad, he has a different role. In this one, he’s the guide/narrator.
In short, he explains how civilizations emerged and advanced, all the way from the earliest civilizations, Stone Age, Feudal Age, Steam Age, to the current technology-driven age.
It’s a unique concept for a video creative. It’s educational, which appeals to people who love history and war. But it also demonstrates different time periods available for play in Rise of Kingdoms.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #4
The YouTube ad above is all about strategic planning. It shows players that even if they ended up in a bad spot on the map, they can still make it work with ingenious solutions to a problem.
That’s what strategy games are all about.
Once again, this is not what the actual game looks like. By watching the ad, you get the impression that the graphics are insanely good and detailed, which is not the case.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #5
Above, you can see an interesting split-screen ad creative for YouTube. On the left side is “When other players play RoK” and on the left is “When I play RoK”.
It’s a funny comparison video that’s pretty much a meme in video form.
For example, “Other players raid cities when they play RoK, I raise a happy farmer when I play”.
It’s funny and entertaining.
But most importantly, it tells players there are many ways to play this game, which is emphasized in the second half of the video.
This appeals to me as someone who’s into gathering resources and building aspects of strategy games more than battles and raiding. It’s smart to show that diversity in ads because it allows Lilith Games to reach different gamer personas.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #6
Focusing on explaining one game feature per ad is always a good strategy. This RoK Facebook ad is all about trading.
Through a lighthearted and humorous story, this ad demonstrates how trading works in the game. For example, one village has gold but needs wood and the other has wood but needs gold. These are the perfect circumstances to establish a trading route and help each other out. It’s a win-win situation.
In some cases, players need to connect two towns. For example, with a bridge, just like the ad demonstrates.
This creative accomplishes two things. It showcases trading as a game feature, but it also serves as a tutorial for this aspect of the game. Furthermore, it speaks to specific gamer motivations – collaboration with other players, networking, and resource management.
The ad ends with a very simple, but direct call-to-action – “Explore!”.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #7
This entertaining creative is told from a player’s perspective. The person narrating the video wants to get Rome because it has so many resources but ends up with desolate Siberia.
After deciding to make it work in Siberia, this player persona starts growing crops, building a city, and training the army. Quickly, he becomes the king of the north.
This Facebook ad is all about beating the odds and making the best of what you have by using strategic planning and creative skills. Thus, it speaks to very particular gamer motivations. In other words, it targets gamers who revel in strategy, enjoy challenging gameplay, and apply creative thinking to advance in the game.
Rise of Kingdoms Ad #8
I wanted to include this Facebook ad because it has a different concept than the rest – there are real people in it.
Basically, a woman is playing Rise of Kingdoms and explaining to her boyfriend what kind of game it is.
I’m assuming this ad is primarily targeting the female audience. After all, 36% of RoK players are women, which is not insignificant. It makes sense to advertise to this user demographic.
5 Things You Can Learn From Rise of Kingdoms
You made it all the way here, so let’s sum it all up. Here are all the good things about Rise of Kingdoms Monetization in one place.
Draw Players Into the Store
There are two main ways the game attracts players to the game’s store.
The first ones are daily chests the players know where to claim. The second ones are notifications. Sometimes fake, sometimes real, they are not too intrusive, but certainly catch attention.
Don’t Use Frequent Pop-Ups
I don’t like pop-ups, you don’t like them, almost nobody does.
For this reason, it is refreshing to see a game that doesn’t rely on IAP pop-ups. During seven days of playing, I only got to see one, and it was worthwhile.
Not every special offer is worthy enough to come as a pop-up, and Rise of Kingdoms developers definitely know this.
Diversify Offers
The Rise of Kingdoms’ in-game store makes the real heart of monetization.
It has six different sections, each of which is different. First recharge bonus, bundle deals, daily offers, standard offers, subscriptions, and a growth fund.
It is not only about the number of offers, but their types. Someone prefers bundles, others prefer subscriptions, so why not offer them all?
Avoid Misleading Advertising
It’s no secret that fake ads have become very prominent in mobile game advertising.
It’s a bit of a controversial topic, but let’s be real here.
Lilith Games are using 3D footage to depict a simple 4x build and battle strategy game. In other words, what you see in the ad is not at all how the game looks or plays.
Many gamers vehemently despise misleading mobile game ads. You’ll find them on Reddit and gaming forums.
However, it must be said that these misleading ads often perform well. That means some audiences respond well to them.
This is where it gets tricky.
On one hand, one can say that misleading ads are bad because they, well, mislead players. On the other hand, some of these ads have great conversion rates and bring a lot of users to the game. But then again, those acquired users might get disappointed and delete the game because it’s not what they expected.
My advice would be to avoid misleading advertising. It’s a smarter strategy for the long run. Even though it might initially result in more users, it ultimately causes player dissatisfaction and poor user retention.
Create Ads Around Gamer Motivations
The reason why Rise of Kingdoms ads are so effective is that they’re created based on specific player motivations.
You can’t simply target strategy gamers as a whole. The key is to speak to different types of strategy gamers and their unique motivations for playing.
For example, a Rise of Kingdoms ad that depicts a thrilling battle scene targets players who are into training armies, tactical planning, and defeating other players.
An ad that demonstrates how to grow crops and expand cities will appeal to players who are into resource management and city-building. And so on.
This approach can be applied to any game, in any genre. Simply identify different elements of the game and corresponding gamer motivations. Use this as a starting point for creatives
Focus on Premium Currency
In this game, if you have gems, you can buy and do almost anything. Speed things up, buy VIP points, and purchase all kinds of resources.
For this reason, they are the #1 thing players want to purchase. As such, gems are present in every single IAP offer. On the other hand, all other resources come as a nice addition to gems.
Include Subscription Offers
In this game, there are two quite different subscription options. The first one is found in the game’s store. It brings gems and encourages daily logins.
The second one is the game’s battle pass – Lucerne Scrolls. Battle passes are getting more and more popular in the strategy genre, and for a good reason. This kind of progression system incentivizes players to come back daily and engage with the game.
Wrapping up on Rise of Kingdoms Monetization
That’s it, you’ve got the basics of Rise of Kingdoms monetization and advertising covered. One thing is for sure, it works wonders for the game’s revenues.
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